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The French Lieutenant’s Woman Movie Review

The French Lieutenant’s Woman is a 1981 British historical romantic drama film directed by Karel Reisz and starring Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons. It’s a strong period piece.

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“We know more about your fossils on the beach

than we do about that girl’s mind“

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Charles falls in love with an outcast woman, Sarah. The woman’s weird behavior forces her to leave Charles after a passionate affair. Meanwhile, another couple has issues in their relationship. Based on the eponymous 1969 novel by John Fowles, this is apparently not a faithful adaptation in structure, but the overall tone and feel are transported well to the big screen. The movie is elegant, intriguing and technically polished all-around.

This story is a postmodern take on a typical Victorian story as it deconstructs the society of the time in a very effective way. Through Sarah’s character, the movie explores the role of women during that period and what freedom really means and how complicated it can be, especially in her instance. The idea of the social outcast is also well touched upon.

Sarah is a fascinating figure that is the highlight of this picture. She’s mysterious, memorable and having a well developed character, backstory and motifs. Meryl Streep got an Oscar nomination for her work here and she deserved it. Her performance is subtle and over-the-top in equal measure, fitting the character and the period so well.

The other standout is naturally Jeremy Irons, who in his look and behavior reminded me a lot of Laurence Olivier in ‘Wuthering Heights’. He was terrific in the role of this obsessed man and the two had such a well realized, complicated dynamic that really worked. The movie is mostly centered on these two with the others being underutilized, but at least the two protagonists were greatly developed and suitably complex.

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The French Lieutenant’s Woman was also nominated for production and costume design, both very well earned. The same goes for editing. The movie is opulent and gorgeous in its aesthetic while featuring a very powerful, timeless score that fitted the atmosphere of the movie effortlessly. It’s a very conversational film and obviously this material was best suited for the literary medium, but the movie was still quite strong as it was cinematic enough and grandiose in ambition and scope. I just wished for a better structure. That structural choice of two timelines fitted the ending of the story well, but it largely did not work as the modern section was underutilized and rushed.